I'm doing a SQL query in Oracle 10g where I'm comparing against a cutoff date. So my query has this in it:

THING < TO_DATE('02/14/13','MM/DD/YY')

Now the THING can have a time component in it. I want to know how the cutoff date will interact with it. Does the TO_DATE function have some default implied time component in it? Does the date it creates have a default time of midnight on the specified date, or noon or some other time? Essentially my concern is if I have a column in the table like this: